[Chaturamnaya] The Problem of Evil - 5 (Scriptural References to Karma / Reincarnation)

[S Jayanarayanan]

Sankara defends the Ishvara's impartiality by relying upon the doctrine of reincarnation.
There are plenty of references to Karma and reincarnation in the scriptures -
here are a few.


1) Gita 2.22 teaches that the soul takes up a fresh body after leaving the previous one:

Vaasaamsi jiirNaani yathaa vihaaya
navaani gR^iNhaati naro.aparaaNi .
tathaa shariiraaNi vihaaya jiirNaani
anyaani samyaati navaani dehI ..

"Just as a person casts off old clothes and wears new ones, the soul casts off
old bodies and takes up new ones."


2) Description of Jada Bharata's reincarnation in Vishnu Purana 2.13
(Translation by H.H. Wilson):

kAlena gachchhataa so.atha kAla~nchakre mahIpatiH .
piteva saastraM putreNa mR^igapotena vIkShitaH ..

mR^igameva tadaadraakSIt.h tyajan.h praaNaanasaavapi .
tanmayatvena maitreya ! naanyat.h ki~nchidachintayat.h ..

"In the course of time the king became subject to its influence.
He died, watched by the deer, with tears in his eyes, like a son
mourning for his father; and he himself, as he expired, cast his
eyes upon the animal, and thought of nothing else, being wholly
occupied with one idea."


tatashcha tatkaalakR^itaaM bhaavanAM praapya taadR^ishiim.h .
jaMbuumaarge mahaaraNye jaato jaatismaro mR^igaH ..

jaatismaratvaadudvignaH saMsaarasya dvijottama !
vihaaya maataraM bhuuyaH shaalagraamamupaayayau ..

shushhkaistR^iNaistathaa puurNaiH sa kurvannaatmaposhhaNam.h .
mR^igatvahatubhuutasya karmmaNau nishhkR^iti yayau ..

tatra chiitsR^ishhTadeho.asau jaGYe jaatismaro dvijaH .
sadaachaaravatAM shuddhe yoginaaM pravare kule ..

"In consequence of this predominant feeling at such a season,
he was born again, in the Jambumarga forest, as a deer, with the
faculty of recollecting his former life; which recollection
inspiring a distaste for the world, he left his mother, and
again repaired to the holy place Salagrama. Subsisting there upon
dry grass and leaves, he atoned for the acts which had led to
his being born in such a condition; and upon his death he was next
born as a Brahman, still retaining the memory of his prior
existence. He was born in a pious and eminent family of ascetics,
who were rigid observers of devotional rites."


sarvvaviGYaanasaMpannaH sarvvashaastraarthatatvavit.h .
apashyat.h sa cha maitreya ! aatmaanaM prakR^iteH paraM ..

"Possessed of all true wisdom, and acquainted with the
essence of all sacred writings, he beheld soul as
contradistinguished from matter (Prakriti)."


3) In the Mahabharata 13.111, Yudhishthira asks the question of what happens
after the soul departs from the body and receives the answer that it
reincarnates.

tvagasthi mA.nsamutsR^ijya taishcha bhUtairvivarjitaH . 
jIvaH sa bhagavAnkvasthaH sukhaduHkhe samashnute .. 31..

"Casting aside the body and the elements, how does the
living being experience pleasure and pain?"

The answer given by Brihaspati is that the spirit takes up
another body. He recounts how various sins result in the individual
being born into animal bodies such as pig, wolf, etc.